September 21-February 16, 2003
At The Fogg Art Museum (more about the Fogg)

David Smith (1906 - 1965). Doorway on Wheels, 1960. Welded steel with black and orange paint, 233.7 x 96.5 x 54 cm. Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, The Lois Orswell Collection, by gift. 1994.16

Lois Orswell (1904-1998) was a pioneering collector of abstract expressionist art and modern sculpture. A native of New England, she was notable not only for the quality of her acquisitions but also for her exceptional position as a woman collector at a time when men dominated the art world. Unlike most of her contemporaries, Orswell focused her attention on sculpture and drawings, rather than paintings, and her collection features the work of such canonical artists as Rodin, Matisse, Brancusi, Modigliani, Calder, Moore, de Kooning, Nevelson, and many others. Of all these artists, none was more important than David Smith-arguably the greatest American sculptor of the 20th century-and the exhibition highlights the close connection between collector and artist. It also features outstanding sculptures and drawings by Gaston Lachaise, another favorite of Orswell. Although paintings are fewer in number in the exhibition, important examples by Cézanne, Picasso, Nicolas de Staël, and Franz Kline are included, as is Max Beckmann's great triptych The Actors, probably the best known of all the works in the Lois Orswell Collection.

Organized by Marjorie B. Cohn, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints. Funded by The Lachaise Foundation.

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